


"Alleia"

by JuLeia



Category: Tales of Xillia
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-16
Updated: 2018-02-16
Packaged: 2019-03-19 11:12:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13703283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JuLeia/pseuds/JuLeia
Summary: Valentine's Day - an Elympion tradition the Rieze-Maxian-born Leia wants to celebrate for the first time ever.To do so, she decides to pay Ludger's kitchen a visit, planning to gift her boyfriend Alvin self-made chocolate and spend a romantic date together. But just as their relationship, things should turn out to be a little more difficult.





	"Alleia"

**Author's Note:**

> This oneshot is set some time after the (normal) ending of Xillia 2.
> 
> Comments and any kind of feedback are gladly appreciated! 
> 
> I hope you enjoy reading ~

_Knock knock knock._

Ludger stopped moving when he heard the sound at his door. He shot a confused glance at the clock. Was he expecting anyone today, this early in the morning even? Rollo meowed at him, clearly dissatisfied his owner stopped to pour food into his bowl. The boy patted the cat’s head to apologise, before heading towards the steel door.  
He opened it, praying it wouldn’t be another of Nova’s surprise visits where she handed him flowers to _incidentally_ remind him of the debt he had yet to pay. It was even worse than the perpetual phone calls she used to bother him with.

To the gray-haired’s pleasant surprise it wasn’t his childhood friend, but another close friend of his who was standing at the other side of the door. He let out a surprised sound.  
“Nice to see you too, Ludger!” Leia was smiling brightly, waving at him. She was carrying a big, pink fabric bag, nearly overflowing with baking forms, spoons and such, out of plastic. It was hard to overlook the cutesy little hearts that were knit on the bag. Ludger eyed it suspiciously. 

“I was thinking of using your kitchen today to make some chocolate!” she didn’t give up her smile “Aaand you will let me, right?”  
The boy frowned, but couldn’t refuse the girl’s request. Besides, he knew she wouldn’t take no as an answer anyway. 

“Thanks!” The girl jumped in, heading straight for the kitchen’s table to set down the disaster of an advertisement in form of a mere bag. Considering the date was February 14th, it was obvious the shops down in Trigleph’s market would try to sell special items for the holiday. Ludger closed the door and followed her, stopping by the kitchenette and leaning against it. 

“Ah, before I forget!” the younger exclaimed “Elize will be joining us too, she’s absolutely thrilled to help me! It’s our first time celebrating Valentine’s Day, after all.”  
Rollo jumped onto the kitchen’s table, sneaking around the bag and sniffling at it. 

“Do you mind me helping too?” the boy asked, feeling a bit uneasy to have the girls deal with his beloved kitchen all on their own. He fully trusted both of them, he did so many times already, that wasn’t it...he just wasn’t confident they could convince him with their baking skills as much as with their fighting.

“Yes, I do!”  
He abruptly lifted his gaze from Rollo to look at her. 

“My gift would lose its...authenticity if the chef himself would do all the work. I want it to be special, you know.” He could see Leia’s cheeks flush to a light shade of pink. “I’m sure you understand.”  
Ludger nodded. He promised his friend to support her relationship, after all. In fact, he was the first one out of their friends to stand in for Leia when she told them the news, while the others had been worried sick. Ludger had trusted everything would go well. And it did, for half a year already. 

“Just be careful, okay?” He responded eventually.

Just then, another knock at the door interrupted them. They both knew who was going to stand outside, so Ludger hurried to open the door for his next guest.  
“Hi Ludger!” Another smiling lady, a bit younger than Leia, greeted him. 

“Long time no see, ol’ buddy!” Elize’ company plush doll flew around his head, excited. “Looking as handsome as ever.” 

“Teepo!” Elize shouted, grabbing her plush with both arms and covering his mouth-like opening. 

“Sorry,” she laughed, rubbing her neck.

Ludger chuckled. “Please, come inside.” He stepped away to make space for Elize to enter. 

As soon as they entered, Leia turned her attention away from petting the cat. “There you are, finally!” she greeted the young girl who was heading her way. “Did you get what I asked for in Sharilton?”

The short girl shook her head. “I’m sorry...seems like we have to make a box for the chocolate ourselves. I brought some materials and gears Driselle has at her house though!”  
Ludger noticed the small purse Elize held in her hands just now, as she was handing it to Leia. 

She opened it and took out a few sheets of thick paper, followed by a tiny glass that was probably filled with a sort of sticky liquid used as glue and several bright red ribbons.  
Once she held everything she took out of the bag in her hands, the brown-haired girl triumphantly raised it high up into the air. “All right, this should work too! Let’s do this, Elize!”

“Yeah, let’s show Alvin that Leia can be sweet sometimes too!” Teepo bounced up and down mid-air.

At least until said girl knocked him right down with her fist. “What do you mean, sometimes?!”

Ludger smiled at the scene in front of him.

\---------------------------------------------

“And we’re done!” Leia stretched her arms after she had put the last pieces of chocolate in the refrigerator. She closed it with a last, energetic blow and stopped to lean against its door. 

Elize sighed. “That was a lot of work! But every piece looks so cute, I’m sure he will love it!” 

“It’s tasty and sweet too!” Teepo added. 

“Thanks for the help, guys,” Leia smiled. She pushed herself away from the refrigerator to walk up to her other friend. “How about you? Are you done yet, Ludger?”

The boy showed her the big, heart-shaped pieces he had cut out of the paper. Leia only allowed him to do this much. Partly because she wanted to do most of the work herself, but also because she knew she wouldn’t do a good job in cutting out the paper precisely as they needed it to craft a box. She always ended up ripping half the paper apart or cutting it out too sloppy so the pieces wouldn’t fit together. Her calm and collected friend did a much better job at this. 

“Good job! Then we can get started,” she said enthusiastically. 

Elize didn’t look that happy. “What about the kitchen?”

Right…  
Leia had tried to avoid looking at the mess they’d made while using Ludger’s precious kitchen. The sink was cramped with dirty dishes, some of them still partly filled with chocolate or the substance they accidentally made while _trying_ to turn a bunch of cocoa beans, sugar and milk into chocolate. A pot was burned inside, milk was spilled on the plates, and Rollo was just about to eat beans lying on the ground…

“No Rollo, stop!” Leia rushed towards the cat wide-eyed, shooing him away. He protested loudly. 

“Ah, he’s just hungry,” Ludger got up while Elize sat down at the table. 

Leia let herself fall on the chair of the opposite side. She pulled her GHS out of the pocket of her jacket. “I’m gonna text Alvin quickly.” Considering it was already five pm and he would probably get off work in about an hour, she didn’t want the surprise to be ruined by forgetting to order him to come to the right place. 

>   
>  “Alvin!! :OO  
>  Please come to the playground! :DD in front of Ludger’s apartment as soon as you can! Dx Dx It’s an EMERGENCY!!!! T___T” 

“This should do it!” She smiled, content with the message she left. There was no way he would think about being late now.  


Elize had already started crafting some of the paper pieces together.  
Leia put away her GHS after confirming the time they had left before she would need to get out of the house. Her heart jumped a little at the thought of her plan. She smiled, leaning forward to watch exactly what Elize was doing.  
“Did Driselle teach you how to make this?” Her movements seemed a little too proficient for her to try experimenting on how the pattern would work for the first time.

The other girl nodded. “We even made a few back in the manor for practice. We had a lot of fun! And she’s going to use them to gift all the people working at the household today.”

“That’s really nice of her.” Ludger sat down on another chair. 

Leia looked for Rollo, who was contently munching his food in the corner of the big room now. 

Elize smiled brightly. “Do you want to try and continue? I can show you how,” she looked up at Leia. 

The brown-haired assumed the construct she finished that was lying on the table was supposed to be the bottom part of the box. “Sure!” 

Leia tried her very best not to make any rash movements while folding the paper into the right place. Elize instructed her precisely and stopped her right in time before she could do something wrong. After some time and when the chocolate was already taken out of the refrigerator, they just needed to use the ribbon to decorate and close the box. 

There was still one important thing missing though, which Leia started to fix right away. She took the golden coloured pencil she brought along with the kitchen materials and carefully wrote “Alleia” in capital letters on the pink paper. 

“What’s...that supposed to mean?” Elize shifted her head, looking at the abstract letters. Even Ludger looked confused.

“It’s our shipping name!” Leia exclaimed, shocked that even Ludger didn’t know the meaning behind this. When they still didn’t change their expression, she sighed. “I started watching some Elympion TV-shows with Alvin a while ago and got to talk with another fan of it while working. You see, there’s two people that are always getting all lovey-dovey but they’re still not dating! So, if people want them to date, they just ‘ship’ them, that’s what they call it. And they mix up the names of the characters, just like I did.”

“What do boats have to do with romance?!” Teepo asked.

“Those are two different things!” Leia crossed her arms.

“I don’t really understand...” Elize begun. “Why would you want to use that name if you and Alvin are already together?”

Leia didn’t like how they pooped on her party. This idea should be the crowning of her work. “Because it’s cute! It shows how we’re connected!”

“I...see...” the younger girl replied. 

“You really didn’t know this?” Leia now turned to Ludger who didn’t say a thing until now. Not that he ever talked much. She just needed his opinion to back her up right now.

He shook his head. “Sorry.”

Leia grunted, letting herself fall back in the chair once again. She took out her GHS to check if there were news. “Ah, shoot!” she exclaimed when she saw the time. Five minutes left until Alvin would be arriving in front of the house, probably panicking if she wasn’t there. She jumped on her feet and straight to the bathroom. Normally, she wouldn’t care that much but she needed to reassure she looked at least somehow acceptable after their chaotic afternoon before meeting Alvin. This day was supposed to be special, after all. 

When she was hurrying out of the bathroom again to pick up the fruition of their work in form of this little box, Ludger and Elize were already up on their feet too, ready to see her off. Elize handed Leia the precious item with a radiant smile. “Good luck! I know everything will be just perfect!”

“Go and make that big weenie happy!” Teepo said.

Ludger smiled at her too. “What they said.”

“Thank you so much for helping me, guys!” Leia couldn’t help hugging both of them tightly. The support of her friends was touching, especially after they had to overcome a few hardships with her relationship. She took the box and waved at Ludger and Elize to say goodbye, before rushing out of the apartment. She didn’t think about the mess she left in the kitchen until she was riding the elevator down to the basement of the building. She would have to make it up to them, leaving her friends with this mess, as soon as possible. 

Her GHS said she had one minute left when she got out of the big apartment building. At least, there was still no sign of her boyfriend anywhere, so she decided to sit down on one of the swings on the playground and wait for him.

Leia tightened her grip around the box to try and calm herself. Her heart was beating like crazy, now when it was almost time for things to get serious. 

What would he do when she handed him her gift? In one of the shows they’d seen together, the couple fell into each other’s arms and confessed their love to each other once again...and they kissed.  
Even though Leia and Alvin had had that experience before, she had suddenly felt nervous sitting next to him while watching another couple. They had looked so...different. Not that Leia could see how they looked like when they kissed, but she still wondered if she was even doing it right. 

Alvin never complained about her, but it was clear he had made some experiences before she hadn’t. Was she even...good enough to fulfil his expectations of her as a girlfriend? Could she ever...make up his loss of Presa?

Leia barely let go of the box in time, to let it rest on her lap only, before she grabbed the fabric of her jacket and squeezed it tightly. This was definitely not the right time to be having these thoughts again…

“Leia? Gosh, here you are!” A familiar voice sounded in front of her.

She jumped on the spot, her heartbeat accelerating from low to even higher than a few minutes ago in a second. Shivering, she quickly hid the box behind her back before looking up to see the man she was expecting.

By the time she got up, Alvin was already standing right in front of her. Him being this close now didn’t make her nervousness and anxiety any better.  
“Are you okay? What happened?” The tall man scanned all of her body from the perspective of at least two heads higher than hers. 

Leia quietly let out the deep breath she was holding and looked in his brown eyes, filled with worry. Suddenly, she felt more sorry than she should.  
Nevertheless, she put up a smile. “I’m fine! Don’t worry!” She clasped the box even tighter.

“I’m glad. But why did you call me here so suddenly, then?” He raised an eyebrow.

“I..uhm...” she avoided his gaze again. Well. Maybe she should have prepared something to say. As if it wasn’t obvious he would ask that. 

“Did you lose your tongue looking at me or what’s wrong?”  
Somehow, Leia was grateful he switched from being worried to his usual, cocky self. But just...somehow.

She let go of the box with one hand to punch his arm. “Of course not, idiot. Stop ruining the mood!”

Alvin stopped rubbing the spot Leia had hit him and raised an eyebrow. “Oh? What mood?” Only now he seemed to notice the girl was hiding something. He tried to peek behind her back, which shouldn’t be difficult if he got closer to her, since he could just look over her shoulders. 

She took measures against that and took a step back though. It was now or never.  
Leia felt her cheeks heat up again as she revealed the cutesy decorated box, just slightly damaged by her tight grip. She brought herself to look into his face again while speaking. “I’m supposed to say ‘Happy Valentine’s’, right?”

She had expected almost any reaction of him. Teasing her about it as usual, becoming excited and happy about the gift, and even, as embarrassing as the thought was, kissing her right away, since he often acted on impulse just like she did. Neither of that happened.

Alvin was just standing there, stunned, staring at the box in reddish colours. 

Leia started to feel more and more uneasy as the seconds ticked by. The arms she still held away from her body to hand Alvin her gift started to tremble slightly. Was it stupid of her to worry that much? But...he should just hurry up and do something already!

After seconds that felt like ages, Alvin shifted his expression. His eyebrows furrowed. “Are you sure you want to give that to an old man like me? You’ve done your research on what it means, right?” He still didn’t take the box out of her hands. 

She felt a painful sting in her heart by looking at him. He looked so bitter and doubtful, just like he did at the beginning of their relationship. Leia hoped he had stopped blaming himself for this one incident that happened in the past. It actually seemed like he did once, but that was before they confessed their love to each other. Maybe, she realised, their constant doubts were a burden they had yet to overcome together. 

And now was the perfect opportunity for her to start.  
Leia decided to take his hand motionlessly hanging beside his body herself, placing the box inside of it. She brought herself to look at him, determination sparkling in her eyes. “Shut up and take it, silly! I didn’t spend so much time and love on this for nothing!” She squeezed the hand she hadn’t let go yet. 

Leia watched him closely as the corners of his lips lifted slightly. His lips smiled at her now, but his eyes didn’t seem to smile with them. Even so, he finally moved by taking the box out of her hands. Alvin broke their eye contact when he inspected it more closely. 

Oh gosh, Leia thought. She had forgotten all about the letters she wrote in golden colour while panicking that much about his reaction to the whole situation. She folded her hands in front of her chest, trying to hide her agitation and silently praying to whatever spirit was ready to assist her.

Then, Alvin’s eyes lit up. A chuckle broke into a hearty laughter. He reached up to dry some tears which had watered up in his eyes. “I didn’t expect you’d take all this stuff we watch so seriously.”  
Leia felt offended, once again. She pouted, intending to make him feel bad about laughing at her ideas. 

When he finally caught his breath again, Alvin just smiled at her. “Fine then,” he said “If that’s what you really want, I’ll be your Valentine.”

Leia still hadn’t gotten over his mocking. “Don’t make it sound like you have to force yourself to accept!” she complained. She knew Alvin’s antics full well, but she still had hoped this day would at least be somehow romantic. He could really pull himself together once in a while.

“Leia.” 

The girl stopped dwelling in self-pity at his serious tone.

“You know there is no one in this world I love more than I love you.”

She couldn’t manage to keep looking into his sincere, deep brown eyes and her cheeks got a little warmer when hearing his words. His sudden shift from joking around to a straight-up earnest love confession really got to her. This guy knew how to evoke any kind of emotion in her perfectly.

“And I would never dare to hurt you in any way. Never...again, at least.” He paused. Suddenly, the man in front of her didn’t look tall and strong any more. His inner feelings he normally tried hard to conceal showed themselves, fragile and wounded by all the countless times they’ve been hurt.

“Alvin...” she started, unable to continue and biting her lip instead. The words needed to express her feelings just wouldn’t come to her mind.

She could feel his gaze on her a few seconds longer. Then, she heard a long sigh. 

“Anyway...” His black lack shoes left a dull sound on the ground with every step he took away from her. She followed where he was going with her eyes, until he reached the fence behind the playground, separating it from Trigleph’s city lights that shone brightly at dawn. “It would be a shame to not taste the sweets especially made for me, right?” He started to open the box slowly, not ripping apart the fondly made decorations.

Leia followed him to where he was standing, leaning her arms on the railing and watching him put a heart-shaped piece of dark chocolate in his mouth. “Is it good?” she asked right away “I really hope it is, I didn’t get the chance to taste the chocolate when we were making it.”

The question made Alvin smirk boldly. 

“What’s with that look?” Leia raised an eyebrow.

Just then, in a matter of seconds, he approached her faster than she could react, took her trembling hand away from the railing in his own, big hand and turned her around with an elegant spin. 

Her green eyes widened as he leaned down, gently pushing the back of her head in his direction to carefully press his warm lips against her own. The familiar feeling of butterflies cavorting in her stomach made her relax and close her eyes, comfortably leaning into their sweet kiss. 

Leia had never liked the taste of chocolate as much before. 

When the warmth of Alvin’s lips left too soon, the taste still stayed right there.

“Tastes even better now,” Alvin said, still smirking. He caressed her hand he was holding. 

“Idiot,” Leia mumbled, pulling him closer to hug his broad chest tightly, hiding her reddened face. The girl could feel him place his strong arms around her shoulders. The special scent and warmth his body gave off made her feel at home. 

“I love you too, Alvin.”

She could feel a kiss light as a feather placed on her hair, followed by a tighter grip around her shoulders. “I’m glad.”

Leia smiled in the fabric of Alvin’s beloved long scarf. In the end, their romantic date on Valentine’s Day turned out to be a success after all. 

Their relationship wasn’t easy to handle and never would be, she knew that from the beginning. The journey to overcome their mutual guilt and doubts was a long one, but the little progress they made from time to time had proven to be worth their patience. 

Nothing had hurt both of them more in life than love did. Even so, they slowly experienced the beautiful sides of it, together.

Leia pressed her head against Alvin’s chest a little more to listen to the steady beating melody inside.

They would go on this journey together, at their own pace, with their hearts beating to the same rhythm as they went.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my beta-readers Starberry and hoverdragon! <3


End file.
